Difficulty level

Research Resource Identifiers (RRIDs) are ID numbers assigned to help researchers cite key resources (antibodies, model organisms and software projects) in the biomedical literature to improve transparency of research methods.

The Brain Imaging Data Structure (BIDS) is a standard prescribing a formal way to name and organize MRI data and metadata in a file system that simplifies communication and collaboration between users and enables easier data validation and software development through using consistent paths and naming for data files.

Neurodata Without Borders (NWB) is a data standard for neurophysiology that provides neuroscientists with a common standard to share, archive, use, and build common analysis tools for neurophysiology data.

The Neuroimaging Data Model (NIDM) is a collection of specification documents that define extensions the W3C PROV standard for the domain of human brain mapping. NIDM uses provenance information as means to link components from different stages of the scientific research process from dataset descriptors and computational workflow, to derived data and publication.

Neuroscience Information Exchange (NIX) Format data model allows storing fully annotated scientific datasets, i.e. the data together with rich metadata and their relations in a consistent, comprehensive format. Its aim is to achieve standardization by providing a common data structure and APIs for a multitude of data types and use cases, focused on but not limited to neuroscience. In contrast to most other approaches, the NIX approach is to achieve this flexibility with a minimum set of data model elements.

Computational models provide a framework for integrating data across spatial scales and for exploring hypotheses about the biological mechanisms underlying neuronal and network dynamics. However, as models increase in complexity, additional barriers emerge to the creation, exchange, and re-use of models. Successful projects have created standards for describing complex models in neuroscience and provide open source tools to address these issues. This lecture provides an overview of these projects and make a case for expanded use of resources in support of reproducibility and validation of models against experimental data.

KnowledgeSpace is a community-based encyclopedia that links brain research concepts to data, models, and literature. It provides users with access to anatomy, gene expression, models, morphology, and physiology data from over 15 different neuroscience data/model repositories, such as Allen Institute for Brain Science and the Human Brain Project.

The Identifiers.org system is a central infrastructure for findable, accessible, interoperable and re-usable (FAIR) data. It provides a range of services to generate, resolve and validate persistent Compact Identifiers to promote the citability of individual data providers and integration with e-infrastructures.

Introduction to the FAIR Principles and examples of applications of the FAIR Principles in neuroscience. This lecture was part of the 2019 Neurohackademy, a 2-week hands-on summer institute in neuroimaging and data science held at the University of Washington eScience Institute.